A Lot vs. Allot

“a lot” vs allot vs alot

Perhaps a little background on this would help.

A “lot” is a piece of land for a specific purpose. The word refers to real estate lots, Christmas tree lots, studio lots, etc.

• A “lot” bought to build a house may cost “a lot” of money.
• A “lot” of cattle contains dozens of steers being fed for market, making it “a lot” of cattle.
• A “lot” of Christmas trees holds “a lot” of trees in December, but none in July.
• A “lot” for a movie studio may have “a lot” of false fronts for buildings that do not exist.

The closest word to “a lot” as one word is “allot” (which does sound the same), but it means to distribute. to allocate, to ration.

“Alot” as one word may appear in publications or in ads, but typing it into a word processor should result in a red squiggly line underneath.

Actually, Alot is a town in India.

Examples:

• I don’t know a lot about horses. They eat a lot of hay, don’t they?
  • “a lot” = a big amount
• I give the biggest one a lot more than I allot to the smallest one.
  •  “a lot” = a big amount
  • “allot” = give a fixed amount
• You know that feeding all of them costs a lot of money.
  •  “a lot” = a big amount
• Feeding a lot of cattle requires a lot of time and money.
  • “a lot” = a pen or a big corral
  • “a lot” = a big amount